Tag: Christoph Spycher

Some players are natural leaders on the field without a title,while others seek the captaincy to assert their presence on the team.

This week, Eintracht Frankfurt Coach, Michael Skibbe, announced his preference for Christopher Spycher to lead the team instead of Ioannis Amanatidis, the former captain.

Ioannis Amanatidis, the Greek forward, did not understand the rationale for the coach’s decision. He told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, “I don’t understand such a low level of respect for a player who has been with the club for four years, two as captain.”Amanatidis feels slighted by Skibbe.

Michel Skibbe defended his paradigm shift, “ I love defensive players as captain because the possibility of a defensive player getting injured is low.”

The choice of defensive players wearing the captain armband is not new. The Brazilian national team, the Selecao, have always had defenders as captain with the exception of Emerson.

I can understand Amanatidis’s disappointment because the captaincy meant a lot to him. It gave him the sense of enhanced self worth. Eintracht Frankfurt boss, Heribert Bruchhagen, always told him, “ when you think of Eintracht Frankfurt, you think of Amanatidis.” Now, he has to contend with a modest role.

Amanatidis should embark on what he does best- scoring goals. He could be the highest goal scorer in the Bundesliga like Anthony Yeboah, a former player of Eintracht Frankfurt and the first black man to captain a Bundesliga team.

The new captain, Christopher Spycher, plays for the Swiss national team. He has a cerebral approach to problems and speaks five languages.

Captains come and go. But a player can endear himself to fans by rising up to the occasion with superlative performance. You do not need the captain armband for that.